


Odd Dancers

by BloomingMiracle (Luna264)



Series: Kingdom Hearts Wheelchair AU [11]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Pre-Canon, because thats PROBABLY gonna be my brand now, pissy idiots to lovers, these two specifically and explicitly get a happier one, this story has a sad ending but it leads into the rest of the au which has a happier one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25013788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna264/pseuds/BloomingMiracle
Summary: The way the Organization was set up, they couldn’t fight directly. They were on the same team, after all, seeking hearts from the strange, powerful moon.So they competed in other ways. Getting jobs done quicker or better was a common, objective measure (“I hate that you were right about this working,” Saix muttered in response to Xigbar’s silent smirk.) but there were other things.They spent a lot of time together, competing like that.
Relationships: Demyx (Kingdom Hearts)/Original Character(s), Demyx (Kingdom Hearts)/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Kingdom Hearts Wheelchair AU [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1469156
Kudos: 15





	Odd Dancers

Demyx leaned back in his chair in the round room and waited. He’d been in the Organization for…  _ some _ amount of time? He wasn’t confident enough to pin down a number, honestly. Not that it mattered; it wasn’t like he was going anywhere anytime soon.

He glanced at Luxord; the older man had been brought in a few days after he had, and seemed to have taken to the politics of the whole ordeal significantly better.

Honestly, Demyx just thought they were annoying. He preferred  _ his _ dancing to be literal.

A corridor appeared on the ground of the room, just a bit off from the center. Demyx bit back a sigh. None of these people had any sense of aesthetic.

Xigbar emerged first, before turning back to the corridor and waiting. A few moments later, another man appeared.

A new dancer. Demyx’s eyes narrowed.

The other dancer’s eyes found him quickly, narrowing in return.

Only one of them was going to reach the end goals of the Organization. There simply wasn’t room, when it came for this sort of dance, for two.

And when this man was gone, Demyx would be indispensable. He’d be able to do less, get away with more.

“Gentlemen,” Xemnas said, drawing the crowd’s attention. “Xigbar brings us our Number XI. The Curious Wanderer, Xepherem.”

Xepherem.

In the back of his mind, Demyx vowed to outlive him.

~*~*~*~

The way the Organization was set up, they couldn’t fight directly. They were on the  _ same team, _ after all, seeking hearts from the strange, powerful moon.

So they competed in other ways. Getting jobs done quicker or better was a common, objective measure (“I hate that you were right about this working,” Saix muttered in response to Xigbar’s silent smirk.) but there were other things.

They spent a lot of time together, competing like that.

Most commonly, it was music competitions. Demyx would play and Xepherem would sing and they’d glare daggers at each other the whole time.

Other Nobodies drifted in and out as they did so, between jobs that none of them would admit to not understanding the purpose of.

~*~*~*~

“I think I win, this round,” Xepherem said.

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Demyx laughed. “I  _ obviously _ had you beat.”

Xepherem laughed, too. “Are you  _ shitting _ me? Did you  _ hear _ those trills?”

“They weren’t  _ bad _ ,” Demyx allowed. “Mine were better.”

“Liar!” Xepherem shoved him.

“Bullshit!” Demyx shoved him back.

“Just kiss already,” Axel said from one of the doors.

They turned their glares on him.

Xepherem drew his sword. “So you have chosen death,” he said.

Axel laughed.

“Xepherem,” Demyx said. “If he kills you, neither of us win.”

Xepherem hissed, but he sheathed his sword and turned his back on Axel. “Whatever,” he said, and stalked out of the room.

Demyx grinned. “That’s  _ my _ win, then.”

“I can’t believe this,” Axel deadpanned. “I feel so used.”

“I would have thought you were  _ used _ to that by now.”

The assassin’s expression turned steelly. “Another remark like that and I’m telling Saix you were a traitor to the Organization the whole time.”

“Aw, come on,” Demyx said. “Look at me, man. Who would believe  _ that _ ?”

“Exactly why you’d be such an effective traitor.”

Demyx frowned. So, Axel was  _ serious _ about killing him over a joke. Damn, it was a miracle Xigbar had lasted a day.

~*~*~*~

“Thirty-seven,” Xepherem said as he and Demyx reconvened after their mission.

“Forty-two,” Demyx said, instantly catching on to the situation. He would  _ never _ admit that he hadn’t been counting, with honor on the line.

Xepherem leaned in, grinning. “Liar.”

Demyx shoved him. “Quit projecting, you loser.”

“Only  _ loser _ here is you, IX,” Xepherem laughed.

“Get real.” Demyx put his hands on his hips and leaned forward. “As if I’d lose to someone like you.”

“You would, you have, and you will.” Xepherem tapped Demyx’s nose. “Get used to it.”

Demyx’s mind whirled, no doubt some trick of Xepherem’s powers.

~*~*~*~

Demyx looked up at the ceiling of his room instead of sleeping.

It  _ hadn’t _ been some trick, after all.

He was in love, somehow. He hadn’t thought one could do that without a heart.

If he heard about it, Xepherem would  _ never _ let him live it down. Was he so caught up in the memories of  _ feelings _ that they were interfering with his processing and performance? What a loser. That was what Xepherem would say.

Demyx hadn’t realized how personal the competitions had become-- how personal he’d  _ wanted _ them to become-- before that point. He’d started to dislike it, when the others appeared to watch them compete. To judge them. It was none of  _ their _ business. It only mattered to dancers who the best dancer was. Just like it only mattered to reapers who the best reaper was.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best example, since there wasn’t a reaper in the Organization yet, but  _ still. _ It wasn’t any of the others’ businesses.

~*~*~*~

“I’ve got it,” Xepherem said. “The  _ ultimate _ competition. A test of bravery.”

“ _ Please _ ,” Demyx said. “ _ You’re _ too  _ stupid _ to be afraid of anything.”

“So you’re saying I’d win?”

“No!”

“Then obviously, we’re going to do it,” Xepherem said. “We just need a good time to get away and do it.”

“Ugh, you picked out a place without me? Half convinced that’s cheating, Xeph.”

“You’re insufferable.” Xepherem leaned in, eyes narrowing. “As if I’d  _ need _ to cheat against  _ you, _ dear.”

“‘Dear’?” Demyx leaned back a bit, laughing. “Sheesh, someone could get the idea that you liked me.”

“You’re the only one so dumb,  _ Dem _ ,” Xepherem purred, putting a finger to Demyx’s forehead and pushing him back.

Demyx barely maintained the presence of mind to hiss at him.

~*~*~*~

“Ugh, this world is gross,” Demyx huffed as the two emerged from the corridor into a dingy, dark place. “Is this a test of  _ bravery _ or a test of how much  _ dirt _ we can roll in?”

“It can be two things,” Xepherem said.

“You’re disgusting,” Demyx laughed.

“Guess that means I win the dirt thing.” Xepherem smirked.

Demyx frowned, but then he had an idea. He tackled Xepherem, shouting “Guess again!”

Xepherem yelped, and Demyx laughed, pinning him to the ground. They wrestled for a few moments, pushing and shoving dirt in each others’ faces, before Demyx managed to get both hands in position of Xepherem’s shoulders and shoved him backwards.

They froze, looking at each other. “I win,” Demyx said breathlessly, after a few moments.

“Whatever.” Xepherem looked away, face going red. “I’ll get you next time. Let me up.”

“Hm,” Demyx said. “Gee, I  _ would, _ but I don’t feel like it.”

Xepherem squirmed again, and Demyx shifted to keep him pinned.

“Besides, if I let you up  _ that _ easy, you’d never admit this even happened.”

“Oh, is that all?” Xepherem looked back at him, now raising an eyebrow. “I’ve just got to  _ earn _ my way up?”

Demyx laughed, a little. “That’s how it always works.”

Xepherem squirmed a bit more, and Demyx wasn’t quite fast enough adjusting his grip to keep the other man’s hand from finding the collar of his coat.

“Hey, what’s this gonna--”

Their lips met.

After a few moments, Demyx melted into the kiss, too.

Then, all at once, Demyx found  _ he _ was the one pinned. Xepherem pulled back into a bit more of a sitting position, and looked down at him smugly.

Demyx lunged, hands close around wads of dirt that he shoved directly into that bastard’s face. The two fell back into wrestling, until they collapsed in a tangle of limbs, breathing hard.

As they looked at each other, they realized that they didn’t care about winning.

~*~*~*~

Xepherem arrived back after a mission, one day a couple of weeks later, to see Vexen, of all people, talking to Saix in the Grey Area.

“I don’t see why you had to drag me all the way up here for this,” Vexen huffed.

“As I said.” Saix crossed his arms. “You are to-- Ah, Xepherem.”

“Saix,” Xepherem said. Where was Demyx? He was normally back first.

“The Superior… has questions about the extent of your abilities,” Saix said. “Until further notice, you will be assisting Vexen in researching those abilities.”

Xepherem blinked. “O-Of course,” he said. “When will I be expected to begin?”

“Right away,” Saix said, and then he turned and walked out of the room.

Vexen looked at Xepherem. Xepherem looked at Vexen.

“Well, come on,” Vexen huffed.

~*~*~*~

“It’s  _ awful _ ,” Xepherem said, burying his face in Demyx’s stomach later that evening. “He  _ never _ explains himself, and then he gets mad at  _ me _ for it!”

“Right.” Demyx petted his boyfriend’s hair consolingly. “You haven’t talked to Vexen much before this, have you?”

“It doesn’t help that half the lesser Nobodies around down there are sorcerers, either,” Xepherem grumbled. “I kept feeling like they were going to pop up to the Superior if I so much as  _ twitched _ wrong.”

“Yeah, I tend to avoid Zexion for the same reason,” Demyx said. “Sorcerers give me the creeps.”

It was possible, sometimes, to forget that Zexion was as much a sorcerer as Xemnas was. Demyx honestly suspected that was on purpose; easier to be lost in the shuffle than be a plausible threat to the Superior.

“So, how long do you think this is going to take?”

“Until Vexen gives the Superior enough satisfactory reports, I think,” Xepherem sighed. “Really, I get the feeling he doesn’t want me down there any more than I do.”

“Rough,” Demyx said. Then he snapped his fingers. “Hey, I know what’ll cheer you up!”

“Do you, dear?” Xepherem hummed, starting to smirk.

“Do I  _ ever _ .”

~*~*~*~

It was on a day that Vexen shoved him off to a side room in order to focus on a personal project that Xepherem found the records.

He’d been antsy, sitting in that room entirely by himself. He supposed he could have called one of the lower dancers and trained it up a bit, just for something to do, but he didn’t really feel like it then.

Instead, he started cleaning up.

The room was a mess of papers, and Xepherem figured that it’d be for the best if they were at least in one place.

He picked up a folder, and hissed as the papers inside slipped out onto the floor. He gathered them all up, trying not to look too closely, but something caught his eye.

_ The Superior has informed me in confidence that completing our mission may summon more than Kingdom Hearts. According to him and Xigbar, when Kingdom Hearts gains its full power, it will send out a call that may reach enough wielders of these ‘keyblades’ to result in a ‘keyblade war’. Apparently, there was one such war a thousand years ago, for reasons now lost to time. _

Xepherem remembered the keyblade war. He remembered how Ephemer had lost so, so many friends to it. It couldn’t have been a thousand years ago. People didn’t live that long.

Did they?

Were Nobodies that much more different?

He emptied the folder into a hidden pocket in his coat (added himself, for snacks) and filled it with an equal amount of the papers that had been loose before stacking it on the table with the rest of the records he’d collected from the room.

What to do, what to do…?

He couldn’t get Demyx involved in this. Even if it hadn’t been a risk, he had no idea how to bring up to his boyfriend the fact that he might be  _ 1000 years old. _ He’d honestly thought he’d only been in that cave for a few months.

He still hadn’t gotten the high score on  _ Bejeweled _ ! After 1000 years!!

The state the worlds were in… he didn’t like to think it had taken them a thousand years to get even this far. That was-- That was--

That was  _ terrifying _ .

And wasn’t  _ that _ a scary thought all on its own?

~*~*~*~

Demyx poked his head into the lab and looked around. “Is Xepherem still in here?”

Vexen looked up from scribbling furiously on something. “Wh-- Oh, you. I left him in the records room. I really ought to request more filing cabinets…”

“You really  _ ought _ to organize the labs, at all, ever,” Zexion muttered.

The temperature in the lab dropped.

“I think I will go get Xepherem and leave you two to that,” Demyx decided. “Which room is the records room?”

“First door on the left,” Zexion said.

Demyx nodded and ducked into the indicated room.

It was about half organized, and  _ entirely _ devoid of life. He could feel the cold creeping in from the main lab behind him.

“Xepherem?” He asked the empty room. “Are you playing tricks on me again?”

No response.

Demyx glanced back at the door, which was starting to frost over. He envied Zexion’s position less and less every day.

“Xeph?”

Nothing.

~*~*~*~

Saix went down to the lab to check the creeping chill before it could freeze the entire castle. He kicked open the door to the lab (the  _ only _ way to open it, at this point) and paused.

“You’re  _ absolutely _ sure.” Demyx’s demeanor as he spoke to Vexen was more serious than Saix had ever seen it in his life. He had a strange calm around him that stretched like a rubber band. One Saix knew all too personally.

“I’m  _ positive _ ,” Vexen said, clearly unsure what way to be defensive about this.

“Demyx,” he cut in, before that calm could snap. “Do I want to know what’s going on in here?”

“His boyfriend’s gone,” Zexion said.

Saix blinked. “What?”

“He’s gone,” Demyx said.

“That is something to look into,” Saix allowed. “If no one sees him in a day or so, I’ll postpone Axel’s other missions.”

“A day?” Demyx hesitated. He looked almost upset, as impossible as it is for Nobodies to be genuinely so. Not that any of them were ever in a good mood, either, but the dancers had made it closer than any of the rest of them.

“A day,” Saix said.

~*~*~*~

A day later, Axel found Demyx sleeping in Xepherem’s bed instead of his own. He shrugged to himself, investigating the rest of the room for clues as to where XI may have gone and why rather than waking IX up directly. Eventually, though, he came up empty, and knew what he had to do next.

He shook Demyx awake, which was a taller order than it sounded. Eventually, though, Demyx groaned and opened his eyes.

“I need to ask you something,” Axel said before the other man could  _ quite _ finish processing the situation. Better to have Demyx hear his voice before coming to any false conclusions.

“Wha…?” Demyx looked up at him with a look of what would have been disappointment and vague bemusement on anyone else.

“Did Xepherem say  _ anything _ to you that might have indicated he was planning to run?”

Demyx would say no. Axel knew that much. Either it would be genuine, or Demyx would cover for his boyfriend.

Demyx sat up, and Axel moved back to give him space to remember which it was.

“He didn’t like Vexen at  _ all, _ but I never thought he’d  _ run _ over it,” Demyx said. “I-- It doesn’t sound right. Something else  _ must _ have happened.”

“I’ll have to talk to Vexen and Zexion about it, but I’d be willing to make wajors that they were ignoring him as much as they could get away with,” Axel said.

“That tracks,” Demyx sighed.

~*~*~*~

Axel had been right about that much, so the next step was finally going to the Superior about getting a place to start.

It was more than a little unnerving, how precisely Xemnas could pin down the world any given member was on, especially given how most worlds were small enough that searching them only took a day or so. Still, when it was time for Axel to do  _ this _ part of his job, he couldn’t deny the convenience, even as he wondered what he’d do about it when it came time for him and Saix to inevitably end their time among these halls.

Xemnas sent him to a small, backwater world, isolated enough that there were barely even Heartless to contend with. Axel hissed at the dirt that caught and clung to his shoes and coat. Best to get this over with.

He walked through the world, through dirt and trees and a shocking amount of darkness for a world that was supposed to be in the Light.

Xepherem was sitting in a ditch, half muddied and tucking something into his coat.

“You were louder than I thought you’d be,” he said.

Axel snapped his fingers. “Yeah, well, it’s not like I was  _ trying _ to sneak up on you. I’ve got a question or two.”

Xepherem turned. “What a coincidence,” he said. “So do I.”

“Me first, though,” Axel said. “Why’d you leave?”

“Mm,” Xepherem said. “See, that ties into  _ my _ question, and I’m not sure I’ll get an answer if I give one first.”

Axel’s nose wrinkled. “You know that’s not making you look good, right?”

“Oh, I never cared if  _ you _ thought I looked good,” Xepherem said. “Don’t flatter yourself. But, Axel, tell me; how long have you been a Nobody?”

“Huh?” Axel rubbed the back of his head, trying to piece together the implications of what Xepherem had said so far. “That’s a weird question. I guess it’d be a bit over six years now. Why?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Axel said. “I mean, I’ve been with the Organization the whole time. I stopped aging when I hit adulthood, but I mean, so did Saix, and Zexion’s still a kid yet, really, so I figure that happens to everyone who loses their heart young. You’re acting, like,  _ really _ weird.”

“Humor me,” Xepherem said. “Do you know what happened to the world you left behind?”

“I don’t like to think about it,” Axel said. “Look, I’m  _ not _ getting how this ties into why you left.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Xepherem sighed. “I didn’t believe it  _ myself, _ when I first read it.”

“You went through Vexen’s records? Dude.”

“It’s not my fault he keeps them out like he does.” Xepherem sniffed, but his hand floated to his side, where he’d tucked what Axel could only assume were the papers he’d taken. “So much time… how does someone even process losing that long?”

“Xepherem,” Axel said. “Let’s go back to the castle. I don’t want to have to be the guy who tells Demyx that you, you know…”

“You mean that  _ you, _ you know--” Xepherem gestured vaguely.

“Yeah,” Axel said.

Xepherem drew his sword. “Give him my apologies, when you can bear to deliver your own.”

“I--” Axel took a step back, summoning his chakrams on instinct. “You  _ know! _ You  _ know _ you won’t win, so why fight? Why not just come back? Or-- hell-- if you can’t do that, for  _ whatever _ reason, why aren’t you trying to run?”

“I don’t know,” Xepherem sighed, off hand still over the spot on his coat with the papers. “I just-- Axel, you don’t know how much this hurt to find out. He doesn’t know either, and-- and maybe this is  _ selfish, _ to make this choice for him, but I don’t want  _ him _ to.”

Axel sighed. “So that’s it then?”

“Yeah, that’s about it.”

“So you’ve chosen death.”

Xepherem snorted. It seemed shockingly genuine, despite coming from him. “Seems so.”

~*~*~*~

“All and all, this was faster than I thought it’d be,” Xigbar said.

“Yes,” Saix deadpanned. “Soon, we’ll have successfully quashed all  _ zero _ mutterings of insurrection.”

Xigbar turned to Xemnas. “I swear, it’s like he’s never been in the same room as any of these people.”

Xemnas didn’t respond to that. “I  _ do _ wonder what the final catalyst was, however.”

“Well, maybe Axel’ll know,” Xigbar said, putting his hands behind his head. “Kids talk to each other.”

Saix bit back a remark about how he and Axel were  _ not _ children. He wouldn’t have even considered Demyx and Xepherem as such, although he was pretty sure he was older than them. “Maybe he will,” he muttered.

They sat in silence in the Round Room for a while, until Axel reappeared at its center.

“So how’d it go?” Xigbar asked.

“He’s dead,” Axel said. “And before that, he was probably insane.”

“Elaborate,” Xemnas said.

“He took some of Vexen’s notes,” Axel said. “I wasn’t able to get them back, so hopefully he was the only person they mattered to. Anyways, he kept talking about ‘lost time’. Asked me if I was  _ sure _ of how long I’d been a Nobody. Really weird, random stuff like that.”

“Mm,” Xigbar said. “Yeah, that sounds like someone who’d gone mad, alright.”

“Didn’t you say you found him in a cave?” Saix asked. “We don’t know how long he was in there.”

“People go into caves all the time,” Xigbar said.

~*~*~*~

Xemnas made the announcement in a meeting.

Demyx wished Axel had just told him himself.

~*~*~*~

“Why are you looking at me like that?” He might have snapped, but he could not find himself with the energy.

“It’s nothing,” Luxord assured him. “I simply… thought your hair was shorter.”

~*~*~*~

“You didn’t used to have those weird bang things,” Zexion said when the two encountered each other at the fridge.

“What’s it matter?” Demyx grabbed a microwave meal.

Zexion frowned. “Forgive me, I seem to have lost track of time. How long has it been since… the announcement?”

That  _ would _ have been the last time they’d seen each other, Demyx realized. “199 days, why?”

Zexion’s frown deepened. “I see…”

~*~*~*~

On the 201st day, there was another announcement.

Demyx slouched in his chair, tuning his sitar.

The corridor appeared off center again, and something in his chest tightened. Xigbar emerged from it, another man walking behind him. Long pink hair and watchful, narrowed eyes.

“Gentlemen,” Xemnas said. “Our new number XI.”

**Author's Note:**

> *develops my Nobody lore in a gay way* *develops my Nobody lore in a gay way* *develops my
> 
> I'm using the same lore for Turn Signal which is a lot more Nobody focused so I've been thinking about it a lot
> 
> ANYWAYS so. The new information here.
> 
> Nobodies, in general, put stock in the idea of rank. Usually this only causes friction between two Nobodies of the same class, and they'll do something or another to determine who ought to be ranked higher if it's not obvious, but sometimes if two Nobodies that are considered objectively the strongest of their respective classes are stuck together for too long they'll fight too. Only the weakest dusks don't have some sort of class alignment and they generally just squabble amongst themselves until they're strong enough to have one.
> 
> The Organization is less of an oddity in that it's Nobodies forming a group with a clear system of command (common) and moreso in that it's multiple classes working together. Xemnas has other things to worry about than trying to piece together 13 greater sorcerers specifically AND prove that he's the strongest of them.
> 
> Anyways so Demyx and Xepherem were pissy idiots for a hot minute but then since they couldn't establish a solid rank between them they fell in love instead. Also its 4am


End file.
